Ink
by Eleene
Summary: Stolen sweets and invented ink.


**Ink**

Taking every precaution necessary before her attempt at raiding the biscuit pantry, she had made sure to check for any disapproving passers-by, went in quietly and came out quickly, successfully sneaking away without being detected by anyone. Yessir, it was a sneaky mission well accomplished, and now it was time to savor the chocolatey spoils. But first she had to get somewhere equally as covert as her mission.

Patience, however, had never been her forte, so Suzy just looked for the first available location. Carefully rounding a corner, so as to not drop any biscuits or bring attention to herself, Suzy found an abandoned office in the Lower House and slipped inside. It was a smaller room, the entire perimeter lined with shelves that glittered black with glass. It probably belonged to some unimportant Denizen of low precedence. But it had a desk and a chair and that was all Suzy needed to get to eating her hard earned sweets.

Just as she was polishing off her third biscuit, a rattling came from the handle of the office door. Someone was coming inside! Not wanting her crime or herself to be discovered, Suzy grabbed the remaining biscuits and dove underneath the desk, hoping that whoever was coming in was leaving just as fast.

She could hear the door open and someone step inside, grumbling and complaining about this and that. Denizens were always complaining about something it seemed, yet they never wanted to do anything about it, which made no sense to Suzy. If you really wanted something to change, well, you just had to get up, go out and change it. Simple logic, really. Why was it so hard for the House's Denizens to see that?

"Hello?"

Hello? That wasn't good. Was the Denizen actually expecting to find someone here? Great.

Heaving a sigh, the Denizen took a few more steps into the room, mumbling under his breath. "Activated, replicated, alternated. Where is the bloody normal ink?"

From under the desk, Suzy suddenly realized where she was. Not in an office of a Lower House Denizen, but in the storeroom of an Ink Distributor who was currently away from his or her post. Boy, will they get it later on.

Suzy heard the Denizen clicking his tongue as he approached the desk and froze.

"Eating on the job and then abandoning his post. Not wise."

As he moved, she could see the Denizen's feet through the small space where the front of the desk didn't quite reach the floor. The Denizen was immaculately clad in shiny black boots that were dusted slightly in silver. Suzy jumped, realizing who was standing right in front of her and hit her head on the bottom of the desk, dropping the remaining biscuits she had to the floor.

Slowly making his way to the other side, the Denizen kneeled and peered underneath the desk, scowling while shaking his head in a most disapproving manner. However, upon seeing who was actually curled up beneath the desk, Monday's Dusk merely frowned.

"Er, hiya Dusk. Wanna biscuit?" She picked up one of the sweets she had dropped and offered it to him.

"What are you doing here? Where is the Distributor? And why do you have all those biscuits?"

Suzy forced a laugh, shoving the rest of the biscuits behind her. "Well, you see, it's kind of complicated. I was just passing by when this bloke--"

Dusk cut her off, glaring. "If you're going to make up some fantastical story, I don't want to hear it. I just want my ink. And since you're the one at the desk, you can help me find it."

Suzy guffawed. "I'm not an Ink Distributor. And besides, I'm not at the desk, I'm under it."

Grabbing her by one tattered boot, Dusk pulled her forward.

"If you don't want Dame Primus finding out about your little adventure of plundering the biscuit pantry, you will help me find my ink."

Suzy had to admit, Dusk always knew how to make someone realize that helping him was the only option they had, especially when it came to escaping Dame Primus' wrath.

"Fine," Suzy said as she yanked her foot from Dusk's hand. "It shouldn't be hard. This room's small."

Dusk gave her a condescending snort.

Despite the room's small size, the shelves were deeper than they looked, extending far past the walls of the office. But, as this was simply the nature in the House, it wasn't surprising.

"What kind of ink are you looking for?" Suzy asked as she stood on tip toe to see all the way to the back of the shelf. She had to practically jump up and crawl inside to read the glittering labels adorning each black bottle of ink.

"Just regular ink to write with," Dusk said, clearly aggravated. He pushed aside a line of bottles with his arm. "How can standard House ink be so hard to find?"

"Beats me," Suzy mumbled, pushing herself out from the shelf, kicking over a few bottles in the process.

Dusk groaned. "Watch what you're doing."

Instead of offering a sarcastic retort, Suzy stood there marveling at the swirling pattern the spilled ink was making on the floor, changing it from wood to tile to glass and back again. "That's some ink."

"And you'd be wise to stay away from it," Dusk said, quickly grabbing for Suzy's hand and pulling her away from the writhing slick of ink.

It had her entranced, the way it slid across and changed the composition of the floor as it moved. She kind of wondered what other things it could change, so she kicked a biscuit at it. The ink seemed eager to devour the sweet and changed it from a chocolate biscuit to a golden square of honey cake. When the ink slid off it and in the opposite direction she reached for it.

"Don't touch that, unless you don't mind altering your appearance as well," Dusk said, drawing her close and backing toward the door.

"Awww, but it looks so good," Suzy said, reaching out to the lonely cake on the floor. Dusk, however, held her fast, his arms wrapped securely around her, impeding her movements. As the ink spread farther across the room, altering the composition of everything in its path, Suzy began to feel a twinge of worry creep across her. "Hey Dusk, how do we, er… clean that up?"

Dusk kicked the door open behind him and stepped backwards into the hall, pulling Suzy with him, shutting the door. "We'll get the Doctor. He's a House sorcerer; he should know what to do."

But instead of immediately seeking Doctor Scamandros, the two of them just stood there watching the door. Maybe it was just Suzy's imagination, but the longer they stood there staring, the tighter Dusk's embrace seemed to become. In fact she was so close to him, she could feel his stomach moving slightly against her back with each breath he took. It was sort of calming and peaceful-like, but she knew that standing around wasn't going to solve this rapidly growing problem

"Hey Dusk," Suzy said, tugging on the cuff of his undertaker-like coat. She was noticing some of the ink leaking out from underneath the door. "I think we should go get the Doctor."

Loosening his hold on her, Dusk said, "Right."

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**Author's Note:** I really don't know how I got it in my head to couple these two. Maybe it's because they're so different from each other that it makes for horribly sweet fluff. I've always hinted at it in other fics I've written where both characters are present; maybe it was just meant to be!


End file.
